The Italian Wine Industry In A Snapshot

According to a recent study conducted by Mediobanca, in 2014 the Italian wine industry generated a turnover of 6.2bn.

The study considered 136 Italian companies operating in the wine industry which turned over more than €25m in 2014. Specifically, this sample consists of 42 co-operatives (including seven limited companies controlled by one or more co-operatives) and 87 Italian-owned and seven non-Italian- owned limited companies.

These companies operate solely in the wine industry and often operate across several regions in Italy. Companies that also generate turnover through the sale of other products, in addition to wine, have been excluded from the study.

The study shows that exports of sparkling wine (up 10 per cent on total revenue YoY and up 15.2 per cent on exports alone) played a key role in boosting the turnover of the Italian wine industry as a whole in 2015 (up 4.5 per cent on total revenue YoY and up 6.5 per cent on exports YoY).

Turnover of non-sparkling wine increased by 3.7 per cent while exports increased by 5.1 per cent YoY.

The main market for Italian wine is the EU (51.5 per cent of total exports), while other European countries, Africa and Middle East accounted for 9.1 per cent. North America is the second largest export market accounting for 34 per cent of total exports (an increase of 13.3 per cent from 2014 to 2015) followed by South America (18.3 per cent) and Asia (3.9 per cent of total revenues).

The largest Italian wine making company, by revenue, is “Cantine Riunite-GIV” with total annual revenues of €547m, the second largest is Caviro (€300m) followed by Antinori (€202m), Zonin (€82m), Mezzacorona (€175million).

Top distributors of Italian wines in foreign countries in 2015 are Botter (whose exports accounted for 94,5 per cent of their total revenues), Ruffino (93.1 per cent of total revenues), Fratelli Martini (88.8 per cent of total revenues) and Masi Agricola (88.4 per cent of total revenues).